A lot of the time, we want to improve something in our lives – be it our musical ability, career, body weight, financial life, etc. I was reminded of a very valuable lesson just the other day.
My buddy’s wife is a physical therapist and she kindly showed me a few easy exercises to improve my posture. After years of hunching over a guitar and a computer, I need chest opening / stand up straight type routines more than “iron pumping” exercises.
She showed me some very easy exercises simply offering a little bit of resistance. I noticed that her posture was great. I asked her if she worked out and if so, what she did.
“I’ve just been doing these exercises with my patients for 25 years. That’s all.”
Wow. That inspired me to do the simple things she told me to do….but of course the key is to do it every day!
This reminded me of something Jack Canfield mentioned in one of his programs. Sometimes little changes in life can feel like nothing, but over time they really amount to a big change.
If you were driving straight and just did a one degree turn, eventually that would totally change your direction and bring you somewhere else, right?
Making big changes too suddenly can cause upset; for example in the musical realm if you completely change your technique, you can really hurt yourself! If you make huge changes in your personal affairs, you often experience upset…it’s good to go slow!
Hopefully this will offer you encouragement to not look for immediate results, yet have the courage to make small changes to achieve your dreams. See the benefit of doing something slightly new – over time – to achieve a new result.
It may be a new piece you are learning, a scale on your instrument, a new language, a new workout routine, meditation, reading, better eating habit.
Don’t look for results right away…that’s like planting a seed and digging it up the next day to see if it sprouted.
Be happy with an itty bitty small change in a habit, and watch where that takes you over time!
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